This application has a very simple work flow. You first start by capturing your screen shot. The tools provided include the ability to take pictures of the full screen, a selection (which doesn’t have to be a square), and object such as a window or tool bar. You can also capture an image of a website or iSight using the tools provided, finally if you have an image ready you can drop it into the application.

Once you have your image ready you can begin editing. It’s not a Photoshop type application with hundreds of different tools. It has basic pencil and paint tools to allow you to outline and express your ideas. There is also sprays, text effects, shapes, arrows and callouts. There is also a very funky tool called a stamp, this is where you can stamp an “OK” onto an image pretty neat.

The tools are mostly used to outline ideas and make them known. They are not designed to be used a full editing suite. For example you could be working on an application, find a problem with it. Within Viola you could take an image, and annotate what is wrong with and then send it to who ever is in charge. A quick way of making sure your problems are known.

As well as basic tools there are also some “effects” which allow you to do some more complex tasks. This includes modifying the edges of an image, skewing an image to make it look more 3D, adding colour filters. As well as this you can also adjust the colours and crop the image. The effects section has more complex tools and allows you to complete more advance tasks.

Once you have fiddled with your image you can now send it to other applications. This includes sending it to iPhoto, emailing to to a friend. You can also publish the image to Flickr or and FTP server. As you would expect there is also an option to print the image you are working on.

This application’s work flow is very well defined. You capture your image, edit whats on your screen, and then forward it to how ever needs it. Very simple, very efficient. There is also other, smaller features, to help you manage all of your images. There is the option to set up collections, in essence folders, to store your images. Another hand feature is the menu bar option, this is a quick way to capture images in the application you are using, rather than going into Viola and using the tools from there.

Overall the application is a pleasure to use, it works well and the tools are very fast. However there is one major problem that I found right away, the short cuts to take images (Command + Shift + 3 for example) were incorrect. They were the wrong way around. This was really confusing at first, however a quick look in the preference pane sorted with small problem. Other than that there wasn’t really anything wrong with the app. I can see this application becoming slowly better as it is developed.

The purchase price of $39.95 is a little steep, for the image editing features include I would have expected a slightly lower price range. However you probably will end up using this application a lot, so you will get value for moneys worth.

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Voila – Mac Screen Capture

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Monitoring Your Connections

Using this application is very simple. It runs in the menu bar as a background application. For most of the time it doesn’t do a great deal, however when you get an incoming transmission on your SSH port it sparks into life. The idea behind this application is to monitor SSH transmissions and it will actively tell you when and where someone is connecting. Notifications come in the form of Growl pop-ups, so you have to have this application installed.

As you can see from the pop up, it tells you the date of incoming connection and the location. It can also tell you the type of source, in this case from a keyboard, which is a Terminal window.

You can do more than view who is connecting to you. You can check previous log entries, so you can back track to a previous time. One very cool feature is the ability to kill all connections. If you have a lot of people connecting to your computer, you can bump them all off and start again. This feature is also available for AFP connections, although it is not shown unless you have AFP running.

There is some other minor features, such as preferences and the ability to quit the application. Its all contained in the menu bar, so things don’t get out of control with a lot of windows and options.

Overall this is a good application. If you, or someone else, uses SSH or AFP to connect to various Mac’s it may be a useful app to monitor who is connecting. It is free so it doesn’t break the bank. If you want to learn how to SSH, check out Mac Tricks And Tips, I will be having a post up about it tommorow.

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Who Is Connected – App Review

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Editing And Writing Posts

Blogo, like most Mac apps, has a simple interface. After you have set everything up including putting all of your blog details into the interface, you will be presented with something that is similar to the image below. Its designed to be simple and easy to use. For instance it doesn’t have all of the advance features that you can normally find in your blog platform.

Actually using this application is dead easy as you would expect. You will in the forms, writing what you want and when you are done you press post. It will then send all of the data through yours blogs API and it will appear on your website. Simple.

It also has features for sites like Twitter and Ping.fm where you can post to those services through Blogo. Overall the program is really feature rich. I could spend ages going into detail of every little feature and function within the program, but I don’t have much time to go through every feature. It probably best if you use this program yourself and see how it works.

Did you know that you can get more information about an application at the end of the post? Visit the post to find out more. Post from: I Love Mac Apps

Blogo – The Every Platform Blog Editor

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Invoice That Service

Involer is very simple. It is split into 4 sections. The first section in the top right of the image is the company, for example it could be your web design company, or software company, what ever it is it belongs in this section. Moving down you have the client which you are working for. You enter their name and any other bits of information. This section also links to your address book, so you can pull people quickly and easily from the contact information.

The main body of the program is associated with the invoice attributes. Most of the work is done here. You can enter information such as the services used, price, as well as a thank you message and a title. The outputted information is very simple and clean. Its also clever enough to bring your detailed information across so you can customize it with an address and telephone number. Once as you enter an invoice the details are stored so you can refer back to them at any time.

As I have said actually adding information is very useful. The various different commands such as searching through invoice, checking to see if they have paid is very good. The actual output from the invoice is very clean and simple. It looks very professional.

Conclusion

Overall this app is well built and is executed very well. There are a couple of problems which would otherwise make this a good application. The only problem I have with it is that you can’t view every invoice by a company, as well as this you can’t name individual invoices. As a result it become very difficult to differentiate between different invoices.

Try out this application. See what you think, I think it is really useful however it may be not to every ones taste.

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Involer – Invoicing Made Easy

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Dockables

Dockables is a collection of scripts. It is not an application as such. As a result when you install the application you get a collection of smaller applications. You can do a variety of actions such as Backup TIme Machine, Close, Apps, Eject, Empty Trash, Hide Apps, Lock Screen, Log Out, Mute Sound, Restart, Screen Capture, Shut Down, Sleep, Sleep Display and Start Screen Saver. Some are not that useful, however the ones such as Backup Time Machine is useful. Its a lot easier to click in the Dock than it is to follow all of the various menus.

The little Apps are also quite useful for placing in Finder’s sidebar or the icon bar.

To conclude this application is very useful. It is free so there isn’t any cost to you. I do recommend you try it out and see it it useful.

Did you know that you can get more information about an application at the end of the post? Visit the post to find out more. Post from: I Love Mac Apps

Dockables – Do Actions From The Dock

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Block Those Ads

Glimmer Block works in System Preferences, as a result it is really simple to use and install. Once you are up and running it doesn’t take long to configure the settings. It does come with an ad list so you really don’t have to do a lot. The list is extensive, as a result you should see results immediately, you can also download third party list to increase the usefulness of the app.

There are lots of smaller little features that you can use to modify how the app is used. For instance you can “Enhance” sites by forwarding one URL to another, for instance always defaulting to the high quality videos on Youtube or vice versa. The app runs as a proxy server, as a result you can really change how it works.

Conclusion

As always I recommend you try this program before you buy. It is free so there isn’t any “buy” aspect. It is useful. However I don’t think I will be using it, since I am perfectly happy using ABP on Firefox. You situation may be different.

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Glimmer Blocker – Block Ad’s In Every Browser

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Your Warranty

This program is really simple to use. You add a new warranty using the button, enter all the information such as Vendor, Name, Purchase date, the warranty in question plus any additional information such as an image and the receipt. When you are finished, you hit OK and it will be added to the pool.

On the surface that pretty much what the application does, but there is a lot of little functions such as Quicklook on a receipt, printing, and the ability to sort the data by vendor, name and the time left. Plus there is lots of little features such as different colour feedback and searching.

Conclusion

This review is a little short, simply because the program isn’t massive. Its designed as a quick way to store your warranties and retrieve them later. Its not an app which you use constantly. However it is priced at $5 which is a bargin. For that amount of money I would forgo making a spreadsheet and just purchase the app to save myself some time.

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Warranty Hero – Check Those Warranties

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The 4 which are included on this list includes: Coda, Dreamweaver, iWeb, Rapidweaver. Each has a different take on how you could develop and build your website. All have features for previewing your site and are specifically designed to help build your website.

Each site will be reviewed on many features such as usability, features, price, easy of use, plus it pros and cons. Each site will then be graded and an overall winner will be found. I am going to use my personal experiences while doing these reviews. As a result the reviews may be more bias in a certain direction. I personally like a program which can work with a lot of coda, so I would see that as a main feature. Other peoples feelings may be different. If you have an opinion please leave it in the comments.

Coda

Coda is an all in one web development application. It is designed to combine many programs which you would normally use into one program. For example it has, ssh and Terminal built in, CSS editing capabilities. A really good code editing program and finally a really useful file browser and manager.

The idea behind Coda is to make editing programs as simple as possible. You view and load you programs files using the site manager. This makes the sidebar act in a similar way to Finder. On your remote server you can do everything that you would do locally on your own machine. Once as you site is loaded, you can download, move, edit,  copy and remove and file you want. Editing files is also very easy. You have two options. You can use the CSS editor for editing css. Or you can use the Edit option. This is useful for actually editing your code. Finally you can preview your site using the preview option.

Coda is very code based. It has a lot of syntax highlighting options, the ability to auto complete various functions such as CSS and HTML. There isn’t a lot of features built into the program to let you automatically add images, and other feature as found in the other programs. This program is aimed at the advance developer, rather than the new user. If you are new to html and websites using this program would be very difficult.

• Usability: Very easy for advance users, each section is split off into a separate panel.
• Features: Lots of features, syntax highlighting, auto-completion, Terminal, ssh, and subversion built in.
• Price: $99
• Total Score: 4.5/5 I really like this program. Its is easy to use, lots of features the only draw back is its high cost.

Dreamweaver (CS3)

Probably one of the oldest web development programs. Dreamweaver started with Macromedia in December 1997 and has grown from there. It is used (I think) in more of a corporate environment and is designed as a program for many people to use on a large scale. For the individual user it may not be the best choice. But it is still a good web development program is included on this list.

Dreamweaver is designed to be more user friendly, for example it has links and functions to quickly add images, other media. As well as this there is lots of options to build forms, database interfaces etc. It has a lot more features in comparison to other programs. You can quickly and easily build a website with this program will little html knowledge.

Editing and making websites and webpages is rather simple. Once as you have created your files with the file browser you can open up your file. This program works with a lot of different language and specifications. The scope is rather large. You can then start writing. For example you can insert your images, css, tables. It again has syntax highlighting and auto complete. The preview tab is also very useful, although it never tends to reflect what you actually see in web browsers which can get annoying.

There is a couple of problems with this application in that the code that comes out of the application and functions are a bit messy. It is never as simple as it could be. It is clearly computer generated. As a result you web pages are bigger than they could be. Another point with this application is that is is very clunky. It is a really large program. As a result it can be slow to load, as well use the various features on the program.

• Usability: Lots of features for adding elements to you page.
• Features: Hundreds of them, lots of ways to build your page, good for multi user environment.
• Price: £400, price varies
• Total Score: 3.5/5 Good for new users, but not very Mac like, outputs bad code.

iWeb

iWeb is brilliant for Mums, Dad and Grandparents in helping them get there first site on to the Internet. Its a really good application for getting your first site online. You don’t have to touch any code (you can’t actually get to any). Actually using the application is simple. You put your elements on the page, you then add your images and your text. You are pretty much done.

There are lots of features for using iWeb. It is designed to be simple and blend in with the other applications in the iLife suit. All of the controls are simple and obvious what they do. The simple interface lets you visually see what you are making. This is most useful for anyone coming into the field of making websites. As well as this the templates that are provided are really good. They are simple but have lots of ways in which you can expand and change them as you wish.

There obvious problems with this application. It is designed for new users. It is not designed for the web developer, there is no access to the source code from the application. As a result you can become quite restricted very quickly. For example if you want to do something and the pre-built code and interface wont let you are stuck.

• Usability: Good for new users, although is definitely not for experienced users.
• Features: Lots of visual methods though buttons and controls for making sure everything on the page works and looks correct.
• Price: Free – $79 depending on when you bought your Mac
• Score: 4/5 Good for only new users.

RapidWeaver

The last web development application is RapidWeaver. I haven’t used this application as extensively as the other applications. But from the time I have spent using it, it is similar to using Coda and iWeb. It has the best of both worlds.

RapidWeaver has a lot of features. It is a very popular app. It has a beautiful interface, and lots of themes. It takes a little bit of getting used to. But once as you have found out how to edit various elements on the page it works really well. It is a really good Mac application. Dreamweaver for example feels like a clone of the Windows app, but this program takes advantage of the Cocca programming interface. As a result It is a really powerful app that a new user could use and get really good results out of.

• Usability: A good set of features, get a little bit of time to get used to.
• Features: Not as many as Dreamweaver but there is plenty there
• Price: $79
• Score: 3.5/5 Good but doesn’t feel as good as the other apps.

Espresso

If you cast your mind back or look through your RSS feed. I mentioned about Espresso. It is a web development application that is in beta. Its a good application as it stands but is by no way complete. As a result it is going to be left out of this small comparison.

Which One To Buy?

Out of the four I personally like Coda, it has a lot of features and is based around developing code. The problem with this application is that its designed for advance users. As a result it is not good for new people to web development. Rapidweaver and iWeb are very similar in what they do. I prefer Rapidweaver after getting used to it, although iWeb is very simple for new users. You can jump straight in. All of the controls are simple to used. RapidWeaver you need to explore more before you find what everything does. Finally Dreamweaver is good for people who have the cash. It is very expensive in comparison. As a result is probably only good for companies.

Conclusion

Everyone has there own experienced and needs. I personally love Coda, as a result I think this review is bias towards that application. New users who have no idea what they are doing would probably love iWeb and Rapidweaver and may find Coda to hard to use.

Tell me what you think. I may be doing another post like this in the coming months which include Espresso, which sounds promising but in the preview stage doesn’t quite do a lot.

Did you know that you can get more information about an application at the end of the post? Visit the post to find out more. Post from: I Love Mac Apps

Comparison Of Website Development Apps

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